20 President's Address. 



able works and the genus Grisehaclda will keep alive iiis 

 memory in the minds of botanists. 



In Arthur Forbes, the ninth laird of Culloden, our 

 Society has lost a very able Non-Eesident Fellow, and one 

 of the most worthy and amiable of men. I only once liad 

 the pleasure of meeting him, and was deeply impressed 

 with his kindly and genial nature, his high Christian 

 character, and that genuine humility which shed a 

 softened lustre over all his other excellences. He was tlie 

 representative of a very old branch of the family of Lord 

 Forbes, that namely of Tolquhon, which was noted for its 

 wealth and power. One of the cadets, Duncan Forbes, 

 went to Inverness in the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century, where he became influential in the burgh, and 

 was chosen Provost — a portrait of him in that capacity 

 adorning the Town Hall. He was also the Parliamentary 

 representative of the district. He purchased the estate of 

 Culloden in 1625, to which Ferintosh and other properties 

 were afterwards added. In the eighteenth century the 

 far-famed Lord President of the Court of Session, who occu- 

 pied that dignified post from 1737 to 1747, threw a halo of 

 renown around the Culloden family, but it has been well 

 and truly remarked that — " of all who preceded and suc- 

 ceeded him it may well be said of the late Arthur Forbes, 

 that none led a more unblemished life or was more 

 anxious to do well whatever duty his position imposed 

 on him." He was born at Douglas, Isle of Man, on 

 January 25, 1819, and was educated at the Universities 

 of Aberdeen and Trinity College, Cambridge. One who 

 knew him well has said of him that in early life he 

 exhibited a decided taste for scientific pursuits, and ever 

 after was a very close and accurate observer. Even in his 

 common-place walks nothing escaped him. Natural history 

 was perhaps his first study, and for years he kept up a 

 naturalist's calendar. Botany was also early prosecuted, 

 and during many a ramble he collected a rich and 

 interesting herbarium of plants found in the district, and 

 among rare specimens were Goodyera re/pens^ and Pinguicida 

 alpina. To the last he took a great interest in both these 



* lUu'C iu otiier districts, tliough not in pine forests of the nortli, 



